CLOSE OF THE MONSOON. 
13 
CHAPTER II. 
CLOSE OF THE MONSOON — SHARKS. 
The breaking up of the monsoon is frequently 
even more violent, if possible, than its setting in, and 
this happened to be the case during the first season 
after my arrival in India. It was truly stupendous, 
and I shall never cease to remember it to the latest 
moment of my existence. When the stormy period 
had entirely passed, the sky resumed its bright and 
vivid azure, while its cloudless serenity seemed a sub- 
lime emblem of that undisturbed repose which reigns 
eternally in those regions beyond it, where “ the 
wicked cease from troubling, and the weary are at 
rest.” It is indeed no subject of common or vulgar 
delight to contemplate the placid and peculiar beauties 
of an eastern sky, where the vast expanse of the 
heavens is painted in one uniform tint of pale but 
vivid blue, over which the sun — 
“ Like a god of this new world,” 
flings his gorgeous light, communicating to every thing 
which he touches a portion of his own celestial ra- 
diance, and gilding with his own glories the lesser, 
but still great works of Omnipotence. The bright 
serenity of repose ■ — the soft uniform tone of the ceru- 
c 
